The present invention relates to the buffering of video data, and more particularly to the buffering of video data provided to a viewer using a push dataflow scenario. Push dataflow is a technique wherein data, such as video, text and/or graphic information, is broadcast to a viewer without interaction (except for, possibly, the advance establishment of an information profile by the recipient).
In a push dataflow communication scheme, a video rate buffer model is required in order to bound the memory requirements needed by the video decoder. With a rate buffer model, the video encoder can be constrained to make bitstreams which are decodable with a predetermined buffer memory size at the decoder.
The MPEG-4 Visual Final Committee Draft (FCD) No. N2202 published by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) and incorporated herein by reference, does not currently specify a video rate buffer model relating the access unit size (e.g., coded "video object plane" (VOP) size), decoding time, and bit rate of a video data stream to a buffer size for buffering the corresponding data. Annex D of the FCD on the video buffering verifier (VBV) discusses an empty placeholder for this information. The MPEG-4 Systems FCD (N2201), also incorporated by reference, defines a buffer model. However no normative definition of the relevant fields is provided in a manner consistent with video.
It would be advantageous to provide a buffer model compatible with the aforementioned Annex D that explicitly states the relationship between the syntax in the visual FCD and the systems FCD. Such a buffer model should be able to be easily and straightforwardly implemented using appropriate rate buffer management techniques in order to bound the memory requirements needed by a video decoder, thereby enabling the successful provision of push dataflow. The present invention provides a video rate buffer model and management techniques having the aforementioned and other advantages.